Leslie Ayvazian

Leslie Ayvazian

Leslie is the author of 8 full-length plays and 7 one act plays, published variously by Samuel French and Dramatist Play Service. Some have been included in annual anthologies of best plays. Nine Armenians won the John Gassner/Outer Critics Award for best new play, The Roger L. Stevens Award, and second place for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Rosemary and I received an honorable mention from the Susan Smith Blackburn jury. Leslie has received commissions from the Manhattan Theatre Club, Windancer Productions and South Coast Repertory Theatre. Make Me, directed by Christian Parker, was produced in New York by the Atlantic Theatre Company. High Dive was produced at the Long Wharf Theatre and the Manhattan Class Company, directed by David Warren, and went on to be produced in Poland and Slovakia. Her short film, Every Three Minutes starring Olympia Dukakis was produced by Showtime and won a Telly Award. Her play Deaf Day was produced as a short film in Syria by Rana Kaz Kaz; it will be included in the 2012 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. Her current play Out of the City has received workshops at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Southampton Writers’ Conference. Her one-act play Above it Allis currently touring the Miami FL school system. Leslie is an adjunct professor of playwriting at the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts. Her credits as an actress include a recurring role on “Law & Order,””SVU,” and roles on Broadway in Lost in Yonkers and Naked Girl on the Apian Way.